About Us
Our team specially focuses on the impacts of environmental perturbations (e.g. ocean acidification and temperature variations) on both embryos and adults of aquatic animals. Integration of molecular genome databases, physiological approaches and biochemical techniques, we try to take advantage of molecular approaches coupled with eco-physiological studies for exploring deeper and practical biological significances behind superficial appearances.
本實驗室致力於探討水生生物面臨全球氣候變遷緊迫（海洋酸化及溫度變化），以及極端環境因子的波動衝擊下，水生生物如何進行有效地進行系統性的生理調節以適應變動的環境。實驗室運用各式「體學」研究策略（次世代基因體學、代謝體學、甲基化體學、總體基因體學）、感官電生理、即時生命現象與行為表徵檢測、以及表觀遺傳等研究方法，並結合臺灣四面環海的絕佳海洋生物學研究優勢，分別運用臺灣海域的頭足類動物（軟絲、花枝、章魚）、硬骨魚（吳郭魚、青鱂魚）、以及甲殼類動物（烏龜怪方蟹、大閘蟹）為研究物種，進行綜合性比較生理學研究。以求突破過往海洋生物研究的知識與傳統，準確且深入地探討海洋動物生態學表徵背後的生理學意義。
Research Highlights
The geothermally heated water that gushes forth from hydrothermal vents on the sea floor presents an ecological challenge. There’s energy locked in the chemical bonds in the hydrogen sulfide with which the water is laden. But hydrogen sulfide is also extremely toxic to most living things. Pei-Hsuan Chou at Academia Sinica, I-Lan County, Taiwan, and her colleagues explored how the brachyuran crab (Xenograpsus testudinatus, pictured) solves the puzzle to thrive around a shallow-water hydrothermal vent system off the coast of Taiwan. The key, they found, is teamwork. The crab converts sulfide into less toxic thiotaurine in its gills. Next, bacteria that live in the gill cells extract energy from the thiotaurine and detoxify it further. The authors propose that the energy the bacteria extracts is shared with the host crab. The crab is a “holobiont”, the researchers say, a keystone species for an entire ecosystem — in this case, for multiple bacterial species living in and around it.